 |
|
Title: Death Note How to Read 13 (Death Note (Graphic Novels))
ISBN: 1421518880
Author:
Tsugumi Ohba
Publicate Date: 2008-02-19
Publish: 2008-02-19
List Price: $14.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.45
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.19
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Death Note 13
This book is read like the manga, back to front. It's packed with information, interviews with the creators, timelines, character profiles, etc. Unfortunately, if you've followed the whole series closely, there's not a LOT of new information, but there are quite a few interesting bits. The interviews with the writer and the artist were really cool. I really liked where they show how the art went from the writer's quick stick figure drawings to the artists interpretations.
Probably the best thing in this book is the original "pilot" of Death Note. The story and the basic rules of the Death Note changed a lot from that original story.
I gave it 3 stars because a) a lot of the information is stuff that big fans of the manga and anime probably already know, and b) a lot of the print is very small and the pages are kind of cluttered and can be hard to read.
|
2: A little something more.
I was very sad to finish the last installation of the Death Note manga series, and How to Read filled a little bit of the void for me. It was terrific to learn more about my favorite characters, to enter the minds of the author and illustrator, and just spend a little more time in the world which I grew to love through the manga. Highly reccomended to Death Note fans.
|
3: A must-have for the hardcore fan, a luxury otherwise
On the whole, an attentive reader of all 12 volumes will already know nearly all the information in this book. As such, the main reasons to buy it are the new elements:
The interviews with the author and artist are fantastic. Which well-known Tim Burton character inspired Ryuk's design? Which ubiquitous piece of Death Note iconography turned out to be a red herring which the artist took seriously? What deeply meaningful statement by L, on which entire interpretations of his character have hinged (including mine, alas) was actually a barefaced lie? This sort of information is both genuinely interesting and otherwise inaccessible.
The rest of the bonus material is either for completists only (like finding out characters' birthdays and skill evaluations), for people who weren't paying total attention in the first place (like step-by-step breakdowns of the storyline) or just for fun (a list of all the sweets L eats over the course of the manga; a series of 4-panel omake comics; a guide to the shinigami one barely sees, and their ranking system).
And by the way, the L name card is very neat, but poorly thought-through. Over the course of the storyline, two characters (but not the reader) find out L's name, and in one case, if it had been this, the story would have gone very differently from that point.
Overall, Death Note 13 is definitely worth buying if you're a fan of the series wanting to find out what its creators were thinking, and to fill in every gap in your knowledge (which the book does admirably). Just don't expect a revolution in terms of new material. Or to find out about L's background (one of the main reasons I bought it, but the subject barely gets a mention).
|
4: My daughter loved it...
Ordered for my 13 yr old daughter. She loved it. Shipped on time--actually arrived a bit earlier than estimated arrival date. Good experience all around.
|
5: Great series, dissappointing extras. Good stuff at the end
Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this, having read all twelve volumes of Death Note and being disappointed with the last few.
I've loved the series as a whole, and was very excited to see this released. However, it is definitely a disappointment as a whole.
Basically, it tells you everything you already knew about Death Note if you've read all the way through, but it is no substitute for the real thing.
Pretty much the only parts of it worth reading are towards the end, where they have some nice interviews and a few pages of bonus manga tangentially connected to the main story (yonkoma and a oneshot). That, and the fact that there is a shiny, shiny card with L's real name on it right after the front cover are the only real reasons to buy it.
Most of the stuff comes off as unnecessary or overly cheesy (towards the middle), and really is not worth a purchase except for the diehards.
|
|
|
|
|
